The new route from Hannover to Lyon was also welcomed in France too. Interestingly these first flights were operated by G-ECOH ‘Spirit of Bournemouth’ – a UK base which the airline no longer operates (cough!). Probably best that the aircraft was not renamed Spirit of Hannover to mark the start of these new flights.

Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, celebrated the launch of its first ever intra-European flights on 1 August with two new routes from Hannover (HAJ), namely daily services to both Lyon (LYS) and Milan Malpensa (MXP). Flybe’s Chief Revenue Officer Vincent Hodder commented: “This is a proud milestone for Flybe and we are delighted to be here today. Flybe’s debut into this new marketplace marks the beginning of our ambition to provide mainland Europeans with the same high level of regional connectivity and choice of high frequency time-saving travel as we currently provides throughout the UK.” Hannover Airport CEO Raoul Hille said: “The decision of Flybe to expand its offerings at Hannover Airport is a great signal to the market. Flybe has already been a reliable and successfully growing partner at Hannover Airport.” Flybe has been operating into Hannover from the UK, where it is the largest domestic carrier, for nearly 10 years and currently operates from Manchester and Birmingham with up to 13 flights per week. The new city pairs from Hannover will see the airline fly 15 routes out of Germany this summer, on up to 155 flights a week. Both routes will be flown by the airline’s 78-seat Q400s, and neither will face any direct competition. On the same day, Flybe also began daily services between Manchester (MAN) and Lyon. Again the service will face no incumbents, but this time the 998-kilometre sector will be flown by the airline’s E175s.

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